India has launched the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) worth ₹62,500 crore [1] to boost domestic smartphone and semiconductor production.
This initiative marks a strategic effort to reduce the country's reliance on China for electronics. By incentivizing local production, the government intends to increase the share of manufacturing in the national GDP and establish India as a global electronics hub.
The Union Cabinet approved the MPMS alongside the Semicon 2.0 programme, which focuses on semiconductor production [3]. The semiconductor push involves an investment of $13.3 billion [3]. While some reports value the smartphone manufacturing programme at $6.5 billion [2], the government's specified scheme value is ₹62,500 crore [1].
India is currently the second-largest producer of mobile phones in the world, trailing only China [6]. The government aims to leverage this position to reach a target mobile production value between ₹39 lakh crore and ₹45 lakh crore [5].
Economic projections for the combined MPMS and Semicon 2.0 initiatives suggest the creation of up to 20 lakh jobs [4]. These roles are expected to span across the country as new manufacturing plants are established to meet the growing demand for domestic hardware.
Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman of the India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), said the strategy focuses on moving beyond simple assembly to deeper component manufacturing within Indian borders [1].
“India is currently the second-largest producer of mobile phones in the world, trailing only China.”
India's aggressive financial commitment to the MPMS and Semicon 2.0 reflects a broader geopolitical shift toward 'de-risking' supply chains from China. By targeting both high-level assembly and the foundational semiconductor layer, India is attempting to move up the value chain from a consumer market to a primary global exporter of technology hardware.
